Kingston's Poet Laureate is an honorary position that celebrates the contribution of poetry and literary arts to life in Kingston. The Poet Laureate program recognizes individual achievement in poetry and creates a spokesperson for literary arts within the community. The position of the Poet Laureate increases awareness of Kingston, as a centre of writing excellence, and fosters creative writing in and about the city. Kingston's Poet Laureate attends both community and City-led events to promote and attract people to the literary world and enhance the profile of the literary arts within Kingston and beyond. The position of Poet Laureate is a four-year term that coincides with the tenure of a new City Council. 

Sadiqa de Meijer, Kingston’s Fourth Poet Laureate

Sadiqa de Meijer is Kingston’s next Poet Laureate. Sadiqa’s poetry collections are titled Leaving Howe Island (2013) and The Outer Wards (2020), and she has published a variety of short stories and essays in anthologies and literary magazines. Sadiqua is the recipient of the Governor General’s Award for her book alfabet/alphabet: a memoir of a first language. Sadiqa is also a 2022 Mayors Arts Award recipient.  

Sadiqa works closely with the Kingston community by participating in events, providing mentorship activities, and engaging with projects. As someone who was born in Amsterdam to a Dutch-Kenyan-Pakistani-Afghani family and moved to Canada as a child - “I’m foreign, and she is home” - she offers a unique perspective on the city that resonates with those new to this city or country. Sadiqa’s voice - as a woman, a mother, and migrant to Kingston, brings a diverse and inclusive voice to the role of Poet Laureate. 

Sadiqa will hold the position for four years and will receive an annual honorarium of $2,350. Sadiqa was nominated by a working group made up of writers, publishers, librarians, educators, and those with a strong knowledge of the literary arts community in Kingston. More information about Sadiqa and her works can be accessed at www.sadiqademeijer.com.

Read a selection of Sadiqa's poems:

• Place of Clay - Mayor's Levee, Jan. 10, 2023
• What Came With Us - Intercultural Arts Festival, Sept. 17, 2023
• Place of Clay (ii) - Mayor's Levee, Jan. 9, 2024

Past Poets Laureate

Jason Heroux, 2019-2022

Read about Jason’s Legacy Project, a video series featuring new poems by local poets and written interviews.

Jason Heroux is the author of four books of poetry and supported and nurtured poetry in Kingston over the last four years, including during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. He kept poetry front and centre, engaged local poets, provided mentorship opportunities, and supported the local literary arts community. He also represented Kingston provincially and nationally, raising awareness of Kingston as a poetry city. Read a selection of Jason’s poems that he wrote while he was Poet Laureate:   

• One Another - Mayor's Arts Awards, Nov. 9, 2022
• The Future of Yesterday - Mayor's Levee, Jan. 1, 2022 
• Speaking Notes – Mayor’s Arts Awards, Dec. 6, 2021 
• I found an old joy - National Poetry Month, Apr. 13, 2021 
• Congratulations - Mayor’s Arts Awards, Jan. 18, 2021 
• Civil Twilight – Mayor's Levee, Jan. 1, 2021 
• House I Forgot About - Climate Change Symposium, Jan. 16, 2020 
• New Year - Mayor's Levee, Jan. 1, 2020 
• Tribute - Mayor's Arts Awards, Dec. 2, 2019
• I Woke Up In My City- Mayor's Levee, Jan. 1, 2019

Jason also initiated a Poetry in the Time of a Pandemic project that featured five poems in response to the pandemic and its impact on Kingston residents.  

• Time Traveller - Alyssa Cooper, September 2020 
• All People - Jason Heroux, May 2020 
• This morning - Bruce Kauffman, June 2020 
• Chronology of the Emergency - Sadiqa de Meijer, July 2020 
• Skeleton Park - Eric Folsom, August 2020  

Another project highlight during Jason’s time as Poet Laureate was for Emancipation Day on Aug. 1, 2022. Jason commissioned award-winning poet and writer, Abena Beloved Green to write a poem, titled Sweet Liberty. Abena Beloved Green is a writer who seeks to create, engage, and elevate through words and movement. She is the author of the book The Way We Hold On (Pottersfield Press, 2018) and Ode to the Unpraised (Pottersfield Press, 2020). 

For Emancipation Day, the City has been working with residents and community partners to offer programming that reflects themes of remembrance and resilience as it is important for everyone to learn more about the history of slavery and abolitionism in Canada and to educate, reflect and engage in the ongoing fight against anti-Black racism and discrimination.

Helen Humphreys, 2015-2018

Helen Humphreys is the author of four books of poetry as well as two works of non-fiction and wrote four poems as Poet Laureate.

• Three Owls and a Bayonet (2015)
• Limestone (2016)
• Marsh (2017)
• January 1 (2018)

Eric Folsom, 2011-2014

Eric Folsom is the author of diverse collections of poetry and for decades, has been at the centre of Kingston literary life. Eric was the City of Kingston’s inaugural Poet Laureate and wrote four poems.

• Building (2011)
• The Loco (2012)
• Kelleher at Kingston Mills (2013)
• Dominion Cotton (2014)